Friday, July 22, 2005
As beer still is the mainstay of our BeachBar business, and as a lot of this obviously very popular liquid has flowed under many an oral-tract bridge since our piece of January 25th, we thought we would offer a short update on the subject.
We tripped across a website, found under the not so very flattering name of ‘briansbelly.com’, clearly eager to focus attention on all kinds of beery things including picking out the world’s very best tasting beers… and if out of the list of 97 selected specialty beers Presidente pilsner did not come in first, it was certainly rated good enough to be better than all but two of the high caliber contestants by the 260 tasters. Not quite the best in the world but not far off we would still claim!
With exports growing at more than 20% per annum and the company receiving a special export award for their efforts last year handed directly over by the other Presidente in this country ‘Leonel Fernandez’, clearly there is a growing band of non-Dominicans who feel similarly.
We have observed two other beer facts. The first is that Presidente (the company that is) has brought out a “light” version which is proving to be very popular… and the second, that a very large brewing company from Brazil - reputedly the fifth largest in the world - called Ambev has arrived in the DomRep reported by some to want to compete head on with Presidente. Rumor tells us they are making all sorts of attractive promotional offers to try and get into the market. As far as we are concerned they remain rumors, but in the last few weeks we are pleased to report that Presidente (the company that is) has supplied us with far more promotional items such as glasses and chairs for our bar than in the last four years put together with talk even of a whole new batch of umbrellas to pop up fairly soon… regular readers will remember of course how dear to our hearts is this subject. Coincidence or not? Competition is always healthy and we hope soon to be able to let our esteemed Playa Vista customers be the judges as to whom is going to win in the upcoming popularity-election between good old ‘Presidente’ and the new challenger ‘Ambev’.
Posted by Playa Vista @ 01:02 PM CST
Sunday, July 17, 2005
All is well on the southern front as the outer sinewy reaches of Emily’s rotating package of discomfort, very much like Dennis, simply, though be it ominously, brushed along our coast. We were once again basking in the usual bright sunshine and calm air a mere 24 hours after Emily trundled on by leaving nothing more than the memory of rather beautiful high rolling surf breaking on our ever-so-protective coral reef a few hundred yards out from the Playa Vista terraza where we ourselves and a substantial group of guests enjoyed the majestic play of mother nature’s forces.
This leaves us with the perfect gateway to a pleasant weekend down here on the beach. For those of you not familiar with our backdrop, Boca Chica is THE beach for people from the capital, Santo Domingo, to enjoy a swim or merely a watery or sandy frolic. At this time of year another major attraction is the possibility of escaping from the usual negatives of living in a large city with its noise, dirt and a far more intense kind of heat… especially in contrast to the balmy breeze almost invariably caressing our little stretch of paradise.
For people-watchers a Sunday is often an unmissable sight with so much natural and peaceful pleasure being had by great numbers of people strewn all along the beach. For those who like it quieter then perhaps Monday is a good day to visit but, biased though we may be, we can clearly recommend you will have fun whichever day you come.
See you!
Posted by Playa Vista @ 12:40 PM CST
Thursday, July 7, 2005
Charlie and Dennis
Charlie welcomed us back from our minor break in the fine routine with this e-mail:
I didn't realize you guys would take a holiday. I was very concerned about your health when you didn't post anything on you page for a month. I check it every morning in hopes of news from the Dominican Republic. I love your page.
A faithful fan, Charlie
(- honestly we didn’t make it up!)
Meanwhile Dennis welcomed us in quite a different way. The warmth of his welcome was soon felt in the strength of his powerful winds, accompanied by a number of heavy downpours of rain and then finally a 3-4 inch deposit of sand on the beach before he passed on by, a respectful distance well out in the Caribbean Sea, quite harmlessly for all of us here in the DomRep at least.
We hope for the sake of the good folks along the coasts of Cuba and Florida that daunting hurricane Dennis will not end up nicknamed ‘Dennis The Menace’.
Posted by Playa Vista @ 06:27 PM CST
Monday, July 4, 2005
A short message to let you all know that we are well and truly back in town – the good old familiar town of Boca Chica that is.
The reason for the scarcity of blog uploads from Playa Vista in recent weeks was the now almost traditional yearly break with the routine. It may seem strange to those of you who live elsewhere, but a holiday away from paradise does actually have its attractions. A couple of weeks back in the old continent works wonders for removing the Caribbean cobwebs, letting the mosquito bites work themselves out of the system and reacquainting oneself firstly with long sleeve shirts and then on cool evenings long sleeve sweaters.
Talking of the old continent… Europe was awash with political recriminations – oh all right the French and the British were just carrying right along with their 1000 year-old squabble – but by the end of the stay what had seemed like an issue that could determine the fate of everything from the shape and size of sausages to the outbreak of world war three was dropped like a limp baguette and the focus was suddenly on the G8 summit coming up at Gleneagles and the fortunes (read misfortunes) of British tennis players at Wimbledon.
So as of today we will put away our long sleeved clothing and knuckle down to some good old serious Caribbean pleasure after the luxury of that vacation in breast-beating Europe while at the same time retreating into a world that seemingly has far fewer problems… because on an island where events in the outside world are rarely talked about the cozy presumption is that they don’t exist, right?
Posted by Playa Vista @ 12:25 PM CST
